The Dumbest Thing We Could Ever Do!

Drilling for Oil off the Florida Coast. It makes no sense, and it makes no cents!

Florida has 825 miles of sandy beaches and 8,500 miles of tidally influenced coastline. More than 950,000 Floridians make their living from jobs relating to tourism and our coastal waters. In 2008, visitors spent $65.2 billion and Florida collected $3.9 billion in total tourism tax revenues. We have a large marine fisheries business that depends upon clean water.

Why would we ever want to risk all of that revenue and all of those jobs—both are irreplaceable—now and forever!

Don’t believe BIG OIL when they tell you that their “new drilling technology” is completely 100% safe. It is the very same type of drilling rig that began leaking off the coast of Australia in August, 2009, and continued to leak more than a million gallons of oil all the way until November, when they were finally able to stop the leak (after the rig caught on fire).

A similar spill off the West coast of Florida would damage our coastline and inland waters for hundreds of miles. It could easily impact Tampa Bay and the very expensive desalination plant that we are now using to obtain 25 million gallons of drinking water daily for people in Tampa. Has anyone thought about that yet?

With one spill like the one off of Australia, we would be out of the tourism business for years, and would jeopardize our major source of jobs and tax revenue.

Why would we be willing to risk that $65 Billion Dollars of annual revenue and all those jobs? For what -- the hope or “promise” of lower gas prices? Or is it the promises of lots of money to the State of Florida for oil leases. Please don't tell me we are that stupid!

Don’t believe BIG OIL for a second when they talk about “protecting America’s energy independence” or reducing “our reliance” on foreign sources of oil. The ONLY thing we can count on for certain is BIG OIL will sell their oil for the highest price to the highest bidder. It is a global market, and if the Chinese want to pay more than people in Tampa, you know where it will be sold, in a heartbeat.

And when it comes to the sales pitch and the estimates of how much Florida will receive, judge BIG OIL by what they have done in the past, not by what they say they will do in the future if we just give them the right to drill. The estimates of revenues are higher than all of the money that has ever been paid to Louisiana and Texas for the last 50 years. Sorry, but that sounds like a lie. We are never going to receive as much money as they are "promising."

Texas only receives approximately $45 Million for their oil leases. That's a dirty drop in the bucket compared to the $65 Billion in annual revenues that Floridians receive from tourism and the $3.9 Billion that the State now receives, annually, from tourism tax dollars. I'm not willing to make that trade, are you?

And what about the cost of cleanup when (and yes, it is only a matter of when) there is a major spill? Don’t count on BIG OIL. Exxon is still fighting the costs of cleanup from the Exxon Valdez spill that occurred more than 20 years ago!

BIG OIL never wants to talk about the fact that when oil spills into the Gulf it turns into tar balls, ranging in size from a dime to a dinner plate. Tar balls harm sea life (when they ingest them) and tar balls stick to the feet of anyone walking on the beach. A solvent (such as mineral spirits) will be required to remove the tar from your feet or your bathing suit when tar balls invade our beaches.

Just think about having to scrub your young children all over with mineral spirits after a fun day of digging on the beach....Are you ever going back? No, of course not, and neither will the tourists. Game over.

Don’t believe BIG OIL when they spread another of their standard lies—like how there was no environmental damage during Hurricane Katrina.

The truth is that over half a million gallons of oil spilled from platforms, rigs, tanks and pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

And don’t forget that drilling for oil is simply a nasty, dirty industrial process. In addition to spills, oil and gas drilling also produces massive amounts of toxic waste muds and cuttings, which can contain mercury, lead, cadmium and other toxic substances.

Thanks, BIG OIL, but you can keep your toxic waste, your leaky rigs, your spills and your tar balls off of our beautiful beaches. Floridians simply cannot afford the environmental damage, the clean-up costs, the loss of jobs, the loss of tax revenue, and the reduced land prices that your filthy drilling will bring to Florida.

And, I haven’t even touched on the National Security issues, yet. The Pentagon opposes drilling off the panhandle because it would affect the training of our fighter pilots. And just exactly who are these folks that want to set up platforms within sight of our beaches?

And isn’t it particularly troubling that those forces who are pushing so hard to pass legislation through the Florida Legislature for oil drilling will not disclose who they are, or who they represent?

For all we know, it’s the Chinese, or BP, or Iran. That’s the point—we don’t know—and they aren't disclosing. Why the big secret?

So, if offshore oil drilling isn’t the DUMBEST THING WE COULD EVER DO IN FLORIDA, I’d sure like you to show me something worse!

Write your legislators. Educate your friends. Stop this from happening. Draw a line in our clean sand! It is up to you.